BellSouth Corp. has tapped several leading marketers for an advisory board to learn about and develop practical applications for interactive advertising. Members of the board include Coca-Cola Co., Delta Air Lines, General Motors Corp., Visa International, TBWA/Chiat Day, BBDO Worldwide and Leo Burnett USA. Board members can test advertising on BellSouth's interactive TV trial in Chamblee, Ga. Katz Media's Millennium Marketing handles ad sales for the test.

Books That Work, a Palo Alto, Calif., CD-ROM developer, signed 11 advertisers including General Electric Co. and Delta Faucet Corp. to its "Visual Home" disc, shipping this fall. The disc incorporates marketer content directly into the editorial and links to marketer Web sites. A one-year commitment costs $15,000 to $50,000.

Yahoo! Corp. today launches Yahoo! Los Angeles (http://www.

la.yahoo.com), breaking the Los Angeles area into 12 categories such as stocks, classifieds, showbiz and travel. Yahoo! partnered with Billboard and Hollywood Reporter to provide daily news. Initial advertisers include Pacific Bell and Kingman Films International.

CommerceNet and Nielsen Media Research last week issued the latest round of data from their Internet demographic study. Instead of reporting the total number of people on the Internet, the partners instead point out trends: 22% to 24% of the 2,800 respondents 16 or older in the U.S. and Canada have access to the Internet, double the figure a year ago. In addition, 15% to 17% have used the Internet in the past six months.

realaudio.com), is releasing a jazzed-up paid version, RealAudio Player Plus, for $29.99 on the Web today. .... Katz Radio Group, New York, formed Internet Marketing Sales to handle business for radio stations on the Web. Also, TeleRep, a unit of Cox Communications, formed Cox Interactive Sales.

DISCUSSION OF THE WEEK

Will the browser war being waged between Microsoft and Netscape divide the online community? Should open standards be enforced, or is the spirit of competition good for the development of the Web as a medium? Share your views on Ad Age's Digital Media forum (http://adage.com/InterActions